How Much Force is Needed to Kill a Single Bacterium?

The interaction between bacteria and nanomaterials, particularly from a physical or mechanical perspective, has emerged as a topic of significant interest in both science and medicine. Mechanobactericidal nanomaterials, which exert antimicrobial effects through purely physical mechanisms, hold promise as alternative strategies to combat bacterial resistance to traditional antibiotics. High-aspect-ratio nanoparticles and surface topographies are being engineered to enhance their mechanobactericidal properties. However, progress in this field is hindered by an incomplete understanding of how these materials induce mechanical cell death in bacteria. This review examines the role of atomic force microscopy (AFM) nanoindentation in quantifying forces required to rupture the bacterial cell wall. The reported values range from nN to a few tens of nN, depending on the type of bacterium and the experimental conditions used. The potential effect of AFM tip properties, loading speed, bacterial immobilization strategy, or environmental conditions on the measured rupture values are discussed. This perspective also highlights the complexities of modeling bacterial cell rupture and the importance of pressure as a parameter for standardizing results across experiments. Furthermore, the implications of these quantitative insights to understand the mechanisms of action of mechanobactericidal nanomaterials are discussed.
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